Anyone with decent bathroom lighting can see that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian has the goods to burst to a powerful debut in the weekend box office, but some folks weren’t sure the film would best the ultra-powerful Iron Man, now in its third week of release.
The good news for Hollywood is that Prince Caspian did beat out Iron Man to get a rock-solid grip on first place, but Iron Man did quite well, too, for its third week of release. Estimates are that Prince Caspian debuted at $56.5 million for first place, while Iron Man showed good staying power by taknig in an additional $31.2 million, bringing its domestic take to $222.4 million, and a startling $378.5 million combined between domestic and foreign box office totals.
Bouyed by good word of mouth, What Happens In Vegas took third place with a $13.8 million weekend, and the stink-bomb that is Speed Racer sank to a depressing fourth-place in its second week of release, luring in only $7.6 million. Speed Racer has a huge $120 million budget and thus far hasn’t even topped $30 million. As Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog might say, Speed Racer is a very warm, exciting movie… for me to poop on! (Apologies to Triumph creator Robert Smigel and Conan O’Brien.)
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man proved an immovable object at the top of the box office books this weekend, grossing an estimated $50.5 million in US box office and bringing its domestic total to over $177 million. Worldwide, the superhero actioner has surpassed $276 million.
Iron Man’s total take was still two and a half times that of box office rookie, Speed Racer, which banked a mere $20.2 million; for a flick that cost over $170 million to make and was expected to gross $40 million in it’s opening weekend, Speed Racer has become the first box office bomb of the summer … and it’s not even technically summer yet.
Although “What Happens In Vegas” was only a hair behind Speed Racer at $20 million, that flick only cost $35 million to make, putting it on track to make its money back. Made of Honor and Baby Mama rounded out the top five. Iron Man is the only film in the Top 12 to go over $100 million at the box office so far, although Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who boasts $150 million to date, down at number 14.
In fact, aside from Iron Man, the only movies in the top 12 to go over $50 million in box office is the gambling drama, 21, at the 12 spot with $80 million over seven weeks in release, and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” with just over $50 million.
The next movie to challenge Iron Man’s box office dominance is the family-friendly “Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” next weekend, though some industry analysts don’t expect Iron Man to day until the weekend of May 23, when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull makes its debut.
